September 2009 Edition - Europe
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August 2009 Satellite NewsVisit www.satnews.com for today's news

August 31, 2009
Arrival: Amazonas 2 — Ariane 5 Action Ahead
The initial passenger for Arianespace’s fifth Ariane 5 mission of this year was delivered to French Guiana today following a trans-Atlantic cargo flight from Europe — the container with Amazonas 2 is unloaded at Cayenne’s Rochambeau International Airport.   Full Story

Indian Ocean Pirates Could Well Reaper What They Deserve...
Mark Abramson of Stars & Stripes is report that U.S. officials plan to use MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the Indian Ocean as a way to combat piracy in the region.   Full Story

Türksat To Takeoff By 2011
Turkish satellite telecommunications and cable TV service provider T?rksat is accepting bids on a new satellite it intends to launch and begin using by 2011, ?zkan Dalbay, the company's general manager, has said.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Charring Effects...
Charred plants color the hills northeast of Athens, Greece, chocolate brown in this photo-like image (top) from NASA’s EO-1 satellite August 27, 2009.   Full Story

Boeing Birthday Bash
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems President and CEO Jim Albaugh addresses the audience at the Boeing St. Louis 70th anniversary celebration on Aug. 27.   Full Story

Figuring Out The Whys Of MRO's Rebooting Regimen
Engineers for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project have stepped up the communication rate being received from the orbiter as an early step in the process of determining why the spacecraft spontaneously rebooted its computer on Aug. 26.   Full Story

Totally Tubular, Dude! UAV Morphs For Tube Launch for USAF
An unmanned aerial vehicle small enough to launch from a plane or another UAV could be ready for the Air Force as soon as 2011, according to an expert with one of the five companies competing to produce the missile look-alike.   Full Story

USAF's Hunger For New UAV Technology Could Have Appetite Satisfied by U of Dayton
The Air Force, corporate and business partners could be just months away from starting up a center that will develop and test next-generation systems to improve the ability of unmanned aerial vehicles to track and attack America’s enemies.   Full Story

Truth or Dare? Iran's Air Force Lays Claim to Developing Homemade UAV
Reports in from several major news agencies indicate that Iran's Air Force commander Brigadier General Hassan Shahsafi declared on Sunday that Iran successfully tested its homemade drone, the official IRNA news agency reported.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Of Glacial Grandeur...
The Heiltskuk (also written Ha-Iltzuk) Icefield covers an area of approximately 3,600 square kilometers (1,389 square miles) in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia.   Full Story

JAXA Getting Set For H-IIB Launch Of HTV
On August 30, the encapsulated HTV Demonstration Flight was transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Tanegashima Space Center.   Full Story

SES ASTRA Is SCADA'ing Right Along
SES ASTRA has entered into an agreement with EuroSkyPark, an operator of mobile and fixed satellite communication solutions, to offer a highly reliable, low-cost and bi-directional satellite communication service to the energy, transport, and security markets.   Full Story

ITT's Micro Bus Floating Space Connector Good For 1,000 Mating Cycles
ITT Interconnect Solutions in Santa Ana, California, is introducing a Micro Bus Floating (MBF) space connector for data bus applications in satellite electronics.   Full Story

Despite India Pulling Chandrayaan's Plug — Pleased With Moon Mapping Maneuver
India’s space agency reports an end to an $82 million mission to map the surface of the moon after failing to restore contact with its unmanned Chandrayaan I craft.   Full Story

KVH Brings Cost + Performance Relief To Danish Maritime Leader
M. H. Simonsen ApS, of Denmark, recently adopted the TracPhone? V7 and mini-VSAT Broadband(sm) service from KVH Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: KVHI) as its primary communications solution on six ice class oil/chemical tankers.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... L.A. Basin Suffers Smoke + Flames
The image above is the MODIS instrument capture of the Station fire in southern California from NASA's Terra satellite and was captured at 18:45 UTC on August 30th, 11:45 local time. The image below is from the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite, which captured this detailed view of the southern California Statin fire on August 30th at 20:20 UTC, 12:20 local time.   Full Story

Hughes Has Brazilian Cellcos Covered
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) has announced that its Brazilian operating unit, Hughes do Brasil, has signed agreements with two top Brazilian cellular operators to provide satellite backhaul services connecting remote cellular base transceiver stations (BTS) to their GSM networks.   Full Story

Space Foundation Launches Another Teacher Liaison to New Challenger Status
It certainly speaks well of an agency when another Space Foundation Teacher Liaison has been named a Teacher of the Year.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Double Threats...
Jimena has become a powerful Category Three hurricane in the Eastern Pacific, and Tropical Storm Kevin developed to her west.   Full Story

Pakistan Will DIY With UAVs
Pakistan has been unsuccessfully seeking drone technology from the United States, as a result they decided to make the pilotless plane on its own for its air force.   Full Story


August 28, 2009
A Cosmic Source Of Speculation
Since its discovery 45 years ago, Cygnus X-1 has been one of the most intensively studied cosmic X-ray sources.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... WorldSpace, Inc...
WorldSpace, Inc. ("WorldSpace") has announced that the asset purchase agreement providing for the sale of substantially all of its assets to Yenura Pte. Ltd. ("Yenura") had been terminated by WorldSpace's debtor in possession lenders ("DIP Lenders").   Full Story

First Year In Space Celebration For RapidEye
RapidEye is celebrating their first year in space — one year ago this week, a Dnepr-1 rocket was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying all five of RapidEye's satellites.   Full Story

Alion Nabs NOAA Spectrum Support
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) collection, analysis, and dissemination of ecosystem information on the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and seas, and land-masses is critical to public safety, protection of property, and the economic health and development of communities in the United States and globally.   Full Story

Image Building Is ITT's Goal For Worldview-2
ITT Corporation's (NYSE: ITT) imaging system aboard DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 remote sensing satellite arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in anticipation of its launch on Oct. 6.   Full Story

HISPASAT's Spatial Passenger Has Arrived @ French Guiana
The initial passenger for Arianespace's fifth Ariane 5 mission of this year was delivered to French Guiana today (August 28) following a trans-Atlantic cargo flight from Europe.   Full Story

ViaSat Conducive To KSAT's Northern Needs
ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) will provide two antenna systems to Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) of Troms?, Norway under a contract valued at approximately $3 million.   Full Story

Go — No Go — Go! Discovery Turns Night Into Day
With an amazing view from the ground, we can only imagine the view from within the shuttle, Discovery.   Full Story


August 27, 2009
Mars Orbiter Is Safe But Rather Sedentary
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has placed itself into a safe mode as of Wednesday morning, Aug. 26, for the fourth time this year, while maintaining spacecraft health and communications.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting
— New STBs From Amino Is Focus For IBC2009 — ATEME Brings Headend Into Play For HDTV — — IBC2009 Offers 3D Cinema Workshop — OmniBus Systems Bringing iTX To Starz —   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution
— ABI Research Delves Into The World Of Wi-Fi — WASP3D Preps On-Air Graphics Goodie For IBC2009 — TiVo Decides To Take On AT&T Verizon —   Full Story

Now Operational Is The Last Of the GPS IIR Sats
The last in the series of eight modernized Global Positioning System IIR satellites, GPS IIR-21(M), has been declared operational for military and civilian users worldwide, just 10 days after launching from Cape Canaveral AFS.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Aruba Networks...
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) has released financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ended July 31, 2009.   Full Story

SBIRS Secures Sign-Off By NGA
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has announced the certification and acceptance of the Space Based Infrared Systems, Highly Elliptical Orbit data for use in support of technical intelligence missions.   Full Story

Bringing Severe Weather Under The Watchful Eye Of UAVs
Mundus Group, Inc. has announced AirStar Weather Systems will continue VTOL UAV patrols for government agencies in the Gulf Coast States, providing real time data on "lookout" for hurricane Bill.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Quick Update From USGS Re: Landsat 5
Yesterday we offered news that the Landsat 5 satellite had run into some difficulties and had halted imagery operations.   Full Story

Aerojet Plays A Thrusting Role FOr GPS IIR-21(M)
Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, announced that its second-stage liquid engine for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket helped boost the final Air Force GPS satellite — GPS IIR-21(M) — to orbit for the U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning System.   Full Story

Get Your DVB-S2 Licensing Completed @ IBC2009
S2 Licensing has announced the Company will be present at IBC2009 in Amsterdam and all current and prospective consumers of DVB-S2 technology are invited to meet with S2 Licensing representatives during the course of the Exhibition to discuss S2 Licensing’s offering under its suite of DVB-S2 patents.   Full Story

Tracking + De-Icing All Part Of Hiltron's New SATCOM Unit For Telenor
Telenor has awarded a contract to Hiltron Communications for the supply of a 7.6 metre K-band transmit/receive antenna system with tracking and full reflector de-icing.   Full Story

Hybrid TV Harmonization Has Handhold In Europe
A consortium of European television industry leaders has announced the launch of “Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV” or “HbbTV”, a major new pan-European initiative aimed at harmonizing the broadcast and broadband delivery of news, information, and entertainment to the end consumer through TVs and STBs with an optional web connection. The   Full Story

Micro Converter Goodie From Brick House Video @ IBC2009
Brick House Video is introducing a low-cost, micro-sized version of Proteus, the Company's its award-winning, fully-featured broadcast specification standards/format converter, at IBC in Stand 8.B61.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited...
Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited (AsiaSat - SEHK: 1135) has announced its 2009 interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2009.</font   Full Story

Guam Ground Station Gets Green Light + Gets Going
Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have unveiled a new ground station in Guam that will track spacecraft from JAXA’s upcoming Quasi-Zenith Satellite System.   Full Story

Thales Alenia's Leonardo To Launch With Discovery
Leonardo, the Multi-Purpose Pressurized Logistics Modules (MPLM) developed by Thales Alenia Space, will be launched tomorrow with the space shuttle Discovery, assuming all goes well and the launch takes place, (STS-128 mission) to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Kennedy Space Center.   Full Story

And Now for Something Completely Different — Hey! Who's Flying this Thing? Special Report
Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this month's update on flying model airplanes ... that kill, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a miniature airplane, towed by two … hulking journalists. And that, friends, is the reason for today's special report on developments in the burgeoning field of unmanned military aircraft.   Full Story

WildBlue Provides Speed and Looks to Stimulus
WildBlue Communications, today demonstrated how it can deliver download speeds that are up to 12 times faster than its current speeds if it gets a new high-capacity satellite.   Full Story


August 26, 2009
digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— Edgeware Assists With nPRV + More In Croatia — Fast Forward Video Gets Lots Of Love — Omnia Helps The Listening Experience — Sprint + Virgin Deal OK'd By FCC — Snell's Station Solutions — It Could Be Magic For TV Magic + Bexel —   Full Story

WAPA Gains Some Latitude
Latitude Technologies announced that the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) within the U.S. Department of Energy has selected Latitude to provide a suite of SATCOM hardware products and related services for its helicopter fleet.   Full Story

'Nyet' Says Russia, No Soyuz Launch Until . . .
The first launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket from the European Space Agency base at Kourou in French Guiana has been postponed until April 2010, Russia's Progress space program said Tuesday.   Full Story

Seeing Red — Lockheed Martin's SBIRS Is Certifiable
Great news for Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] which announced today that the second Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO-2) payload and associated ground systems have been certified for missile warning operations by U.S. Strategic Command.   Full Story

UAVs Could Be A Tremendous Asset To Mexico In That Nation's War Against Drug Cartels
Michael Webster of Right Side News reports at the site that a high ranking Mexican military officer, who says he must remain anonymous, that Mexican President Calderon asked President Obama for armed drones to track down and kill the MDC's leadership and to help in surveillance of norco-traffing and have scensors on board that will be able to track targets as small as a human carrying a weapon.   Full Story

Landsat 5 Stabilized But No Imagery Ops
The U.S. Geological Survey says it has stabilized its Landsat 5 satellite that tumbled out of control Aug. 13, but imaging operations have been suspended.   Full Story

The Satellite/Space Update From SatNews Columnist + TSI Publisher Jos Heyman
From Jos Heyman, SatMagazine and MilsatMagazine columnist extraordinaire, and the publisher of the Tiros Space Information News Bulletin, comes his latest, monthly Satellite update...   Full Story

New Report Deals With Satellite Telecommunications Industry
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "2009 Worldwide Satellite Telecommunications Industry Report" report to their offering.   Full Story

Swiss Enjoy Airglow Using Low Cost Cubes
Students at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have built the first all-Swiss cube satellite to study the upper atmosphere and test low-cost positioning system and have turned to ISRO to put it in orbit.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... The Aral Sea — Sans Sea
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the Aral Sea was the world’s fourth-largest lake.   Full Story

Oceansat-2 Prepped For ISRO Launch Next Month
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch Oceansat-2, a unique integrated satellite to track marine life and identify potential fishing zones in September.   Full Story

South Korea's Satellite May Well Be Down Under
The satellite carried by Korea's first space rocket appears to have fallen toward earth after failing to enter the target orbit due to problems with the payload fairing, the ministry of education, science and technology said on August 26.   Full Story


August 25, 2009
NEC Up To Its Neck In SoCs (SatBroadcasting: STB)
NEC Electronics (TSE: 6723) has now made available their new image-processing solution, the EMMA3™SL/P system-on-chip (SoC) based on NEC Electronics’ enhanced multimedia architecture (EMMA) platform.   Full Story

Laying a Great Foundation at The Space Foundation
The latest and greatest from The Space Foundation is solidifying its position as one of the nation's premier space-focused education providers with the establishment of the new Space Foundation Discovery Institute on the campus of Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.   Full Story

South Korea's Naro Does Well, Satellite Not So Superbly
The South Korean rocket launch earlier today occurred successfully — unfortunately, as was the case with this nation's counterpart to the north, the satellite never arrived at its intended orbit.   Full Story

Discovery Liftoff Is Valved Off
NASA has targeted the next launch attempt for space shuttle Discovery for no earlier than 12:22 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 28, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.   Full Story

RaySat Keeps a Low Profile With StealthRay 5000
RaySat Antenna Systems has developed the StealthRay 5000 antenna to meet the demanding and diverse needs of SatCom on-the-move customers.   Full Story

Rapidly Partnering — RapidEye Joins ESRI Biz Partners
Furthering their strength as the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of Earth observation satellites, RapidEye announced today that they have joined the ESRI Business Partner Program.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth . . .On Fire! It All Looks Greek To Me
The scourge of droughts, and the terrifying threat to humans and historical locations — the wildfires threatening Athens have been beaten back by firefighters, but when it did threaten the Greek capital over the weekend, EUMETSAT’s Meteosat-9 satellite observed the smoke plumes.   Full Story

Arqiva Ties Its Kangaroo Down, Sport (SatBroadcasting: Acquisition)
Arqiva has announced the completion of its acquisition of the platform assets of Project Kangaroo, the video-on-demand (VOD) platform developed by UKVOD LLP, a joint venture set up by BBC Worldwide, ITV, and Channel 4.   Full Story

DEM Maps From Harris
Harris Corporation's very high-resolution, global Digital Elevation Models are, for the first time, now available to commercial users online via the MapMart(r) web portal.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Popcorn Over The Amazon
While you may think of a rainforest as being perpetually wet and rainy, the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, actually has a dry season when the clouds clear and sunlight drenches the trees.   Full Story

ScheduLINK Sees Solutions for Streamlining Sessions With Satellites
Imagine how hectic it can get in a television news room, with accuracy being the key player, and speed always a part of the equation.   Full Story


August 24, 2009
Patroller Passes Propitiously
The Patroller Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) from Sagem and Stemme recently completed a series of eight test flights ending with a 10 hour flight.   Full Story

Getting Sirius at the Dock — iPhone and iPod (SatBroadcasting)
Sirius XM, the satellite radio service provider, is set to introduce a satellite radio dock called XM SkyDock for the iPhone and iPod Touch, says the XMFan.com website. The company has scheduled a press event on Wednesday to talk about new products.   Full Story

Getting In The Front Of The Line As A Thuraya SP Is IEC Telecom Group
IEC Telecom Group has cemented into place their Tier 1 service provider level for Thuraya products and services worldwide.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— 2degrees Needs Just A Bit More Time For 3G — AT&T Switch-off Results In Better 3G Nets — Moving On Up @ Bridge Technologies —   Full Story

'Nother Ariane 5 Arrives @ Spaceport For Arianespace' 191st Flight
Launcher elements for the sixth mission in 2009 with Arianespace's Ariane 5 in 2009 are now at the Spaceport and are ready for assembly as the newest heavy-lift vehicle.   Full Story

More Discoveries for ISS, Courtesy Of Discovery Shuttle + Astrium
The U.S. space shuttle Discovery is set to carry three new research facilities to the International Space Station (ISS), which will enable more on board science to occur.   Full Story

ABI Analyzes STBs For Emerging Technologies (SatBroadcasting: Research)
In line with the global phenomenon of switching over from analog to digital TV services, set-top boxes (STBs) now have a more crucial role in the home for accessing of entertainment and information services provided by television service operators.   Full Story

Iridium SatPhones Integrated Into Newfoundland + Labrador Motorist Services
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is establishing an Iridium Satellite LLC (Iridium)-based satellite phone service for motorists on the Trans-Labrador Highway.   Full Story

Taking Spaceflight To The Personal + Commercial Level
At the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS), a panel titled “Space Operations: Lessons Learned & Opportunities for Innovation”?will be chaired by James Van Laak, Federal Aviation Administration — its members will include Jerry Miller, United Space Alliance; Julia Tizard, Virgin Galactic; James M. Heflin, NASA Johnson Space Center; and Steve Landeene, New Mexico Spaceport Authority.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth: Greecian Fires Flame Fiercely
Flames raced through the forests northeast of Athens, Greece, on August 22, 2009, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image.   Full Story

KazSat-1 Going Nowhere...
Kazakhstan's first satellite, KazSat-1, has been placed into orbit for a 'space burial,' the country's mission control reported last Friday.   Full Story

JAXA—DLR— A MOU — SARific
Dr. Keiji Tachikawa, President of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Prof. Dr. Johann-Dietrich Worner, Chairman of the Executive Board of German Aerospace Center (DLR), have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) concerning mutual cooperation for satellite disaster monitoring.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: Shadowy Encounters
Saturn's moon Tethys casts a shadow on the planet's A ring alongside the larger shadow cast by the planet itself in this image taken as Saturn approached its August 2009 equinox.   Full Story

NASA To Go "Outside" For Spatial Excursions??
In an unprecedented move, the U.S. space program may turn to private contractors for much of the work now handled by government workers, officials say.   Full Story

An Icy Blast From The U.S.A.F. Propels Breakthrough
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and NASA recently announced the launch of an environmentally-friendly, safe propellant comprised of aluminum powder and water ice (ALICE).   Full Story

Moving On Up . . . (Actually, Maintaining) @ NASA
He's already been the acting director since March, but now it's official that NASA has named Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., as the director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.   Full Story

TacSat-3 Goes From Calibration To Validation Testing
Last Monday, Tactical Satellite-3 completed its critical calibration phase almost three months after launch, and the program team now prepares the 880-pound spacecraft for the crucial validation stage.   Full Story

Empire Challenge 09 No Game For Northrop Grumman's Interoperability Demo
Northrop Grumman Corporation has successfully demonstrated Joint STARS and E-2 Hawkeye interoperability between manned and unmanned platforms during a recent virtual joint military demonstration involving U.S. and coalition forces.   Full Story

Flight Control AHC For UAVs With Crossbow
Crossbow Technology, Inc. announced the Company's single-card AHC525 Attitude Heading Reference is now available for integration within UAV flight control systems.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Hilda Happening, Hawai'i Bound
Tropical Storm Hilda formed over the weekend and is continuing to strengthen, as is evident in infrared satellite imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite.   Full Story

South Korea To Give SatLaunch Another Shot
Heejin Koo at Bloomberg.net reports that South Korea will attempt to complete its first space launch today, a week after aborting the mission minutes before liftoff because a pressure gauge malfunctioned.   Full Story

Set To Expand Is Mobile Communication Acceleration
Expand Networks will exhibit the latest innovations in acceleration techniques for U.S. Air Force communications at AFITC 2009.   Full Story

Sending Stimulus to SkyTerra for Spending
It's official, SkyTerra Safety Access LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SkyTerra (OTCBB: SKYT) filed with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for stimulus funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).   Full Story

Discovery Does Dress Rehearsal
Space shuttle Discovery is in the final stages of preparation before its flight to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.   Full Story


August 23, 2009
iPhone In Control — Of A Drone
A team of 30 aeronautics students at MIT have written an app that allows users to control airborne drones via the iPhone’s accelerometer — simply turning the handheld device controls the drone.   Full Story

Make The MILCOM Move...
MILCOM is the premier international conference for military communications and attracts the best and brightest with high-level attendance from government, military, industry and academia.   Full Story

Applause For Arianespace
Lifting off from the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch zone in French Guiana, Arianespace' Ariane 5 injected its JCSAT-12 and Optus D3 payloads into geostationary transfer orbit during a flight that lasted just over 34 minutes.   Full Story

A Heckuva Airborne Hull For AESIR UAVs
Composite carbon prepreg materials from Advanced Composites Group Ltd. (ACG), part of the Composites Division of Umeco plc, are being used by Peterborough, U.K.-based AESIR Ltd. to manufacture the fuselage of its ODIN, HODER, and VIDAR Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs).   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— AVerMedia Acceleratres HTPC — Envivio Dials Down HD Bit Rates — Getting The FLO... TV, That Is — intoPIX & Migration Magic — Rovi Signs Samsung — Movies On The Go For PSP'ers — Telestream Is A Flash In The Pan — Wohler Gains Brazilian Distributor —   Full Story

WGS-2 Winning Ways For Warfighters
The U.S. Air Force' U.S. Strategic Command has accepted command and control of its second Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) communication satellite, WGS-2.   Full Story

Optus D3 Launch Advances Sat Services For Australia + New Zealand
Optus' latest state-of-the-art satellite, Optus D3, was successfully propelled into orbit following an impressive lift-off from French Guiana on August 22nd.   Full Story

Nimiq 5 Has Liftoff Appointment In Baikonur
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has delivered a communications satellite built for Telesat to the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan, where it is scheduled to launch on September 18th aboard an ILS Proton Breeze M vehicle provided by International Launch Services (ILS).   Full Story

SDL App Cavity Filtering, Of The X-Band Variety
MtronPTI has introduced a new series of X-Band Cavity Filters designed, qualified and manufactured specifically for Satellite Data Link applications.   Full Story

Moving On Up... At Integral Systems...
Integral Systems, Inc.?(Nasdaq: ISYS) has appointed Major General (Ret.) H. Marshal Ward, US.A.F., as Chief Operating Officer.   Full Story

Newtec Enjoys Getting Shortlisted (SatBroadcasting)
Newtec has been shortlisted in two categories for this year’s Cable and Satellite International Awards — the Company's FlexACM? solution has been recognised in the “Best satellite contribution/distribution/transmission solution” category, and MENOS (Multimedia Exchange over Satellite), is a finalist in the “Best outside broadcast technology or service” category.   Full Story

Bringing Velocity To SatServices Is Planetsky
Planetsky Ltd. has debuted their new satellite communications portfolio and service offerings: VelocitySAT™ by Planetsky.   Full Story

C2SAT's Subsids To Increase Southeast Asian Impact
C2SAT (NGM-stock exchange) and the Company's board of directors has decided to establish a subsidiary, C2SAT Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, for more focus on the fast growing Southeast Asian markets — the growth of installed VSATs in the region was 30 percent in 2007 and accelerating growth is forecast for the coming years.   Full Story

L-3's GCS Gets into VSAT's For U.S. Forces
L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) and the Company's Global Communications Solutions (GCS) division has been awarded a follow-on contract by Eyak Technology for 970 combat service support Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs). The value of the award is $42.5 million.   Full Story

Atmospheric Attenuation + Water Vapor Content — SatService GmbH Ties It All Together
SatService Gesellschaft f?r Kommunikationssysteme has debuted their new sat-nms RMC Radiometer Controller and sat-nms RMD Radiometer Detector Modules.   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ GlobeCast Australia... (SatBroadcasting)
GlobeCast Australia has announced changes to its Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellite services management team.   Full Story

Falco UAV Finds Pakistan A Most Suitable Environment
The Pakistan Air force has initiated the start of the Falco UAV Co-Production Project.   Full Story

Latitude Lands EASA SkyNode Approval
Latitude Technologies has announced that Norway-based Airlift AS has successfully obtained EASA STC “EASA.R.S.01574” for the installation of Latitude Technologies’ SkyNode? S200 Satellite Communications Systems.   Full Story

UAV Video Vagaries Eliminated By Enerdyne @ Webster Field
At the Unmanned System Demonstration?at Webster Field near Patuxent River Maryland, the Enerdyne division of ViaSat Inc. (Nasdaq:VSAT) successfully received and displayed analog-transmitted NTSC video from a variety of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) using its digital EnerLinksIII Ground Modem Transceiver (GMT).   Full Story

Not So Stupid At All — Global Vision's Sat-Delivered Cinema Premiere Is Green All The Way
Moving away from tradition and into the future, "Age of Stupid," the new feature film on the environment, premiered on the Green Carpet at the Sydney Theatre Company.   Full Story

Acquiring Minds Want To Know... IDC + Comtech Tiernan Video (SatBroadcasting)
International Datacasting Corporation (TSX:IDC) ("IDC") has acquired select product lines and related technology from Comtech Tiernan Video, Inc. ("Tiernan").   Full Story

Opting For Optus D3 While Running To Keep Up With Arianespace's Launches
The Arianespace Center in French Guiana is one busy place as it keeps up its mission pace with two Ariane 5s now in process at French Guiana, in addition to the vehicle involved in the August 21st flight, with a payload of two telecommunications satellites.   Full Story

SatService At Your Service With Upgrade for Earth Station Antennas
SatService GmbH offers an Upgrade Kit to retrofit ACS 3000 Antenna Control Systems from ACS, or formerly Andrew, with its sat-nms ACU-ODM module.   Full Story


August 22, 2009
Asia-Pacific Activate + Accommodate By KVH
KVH Industries (Nasdaq: KVHI) has activated its mini-VSAT Broadband(sm) service in Australian and New Zealand waters, following the successful completion of satellite testing.   Full Story


August 21, 2009
We're Not Ignoring You — We're Just Not Going to Be Here (for a little while)
While we like to think that each word that we write is received with anticipation, the SatNews team is announcing a brief respite from the hectic world of satellites and all manner of space objects. We have every confidence that no satellites will falter (due to our hiatus) during this period of time.   Full Story

Rockwell Is A Controlling Factor For Excalibur + SnowGoose
The Athena 511 flight control and navigation systems from Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, landed in two unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms this summer — the Excalibur UAV from Aurora Flight Sciences in Manassas, Va., and the CQ-10A SnowGoose Cargo UAV from Mist Mobility Integrated Systems Technology (MMIST) in Ottawa, Ontario.</font   Full Story


August 14, 2009
Financially Speaking... TELUS Corporation (SatBroadcasting)...
TELUS Corporation reported second quarter 2009 revenue of $2.38 billion, a decrease of $22 million from last year.   Full Story

Satellite Development — A Duo Of Express Launches
Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) —- the Russian satellite communications operator and Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems (Reshetnev ISS) — signed a contract for design, development, manufacture, tests, launch preparation and taking into orbital operation the Express-AM5 and Express-AM6 satellites.   Full Story

atrexx On ITs Way With 2way2sat
atrexx has introduced Single Channel per Carrier (SCPC) satellite services on the 2way2sat platform to South America and the Caribbean.   Full Story

Acquiring Minds Want To Know... InterAct Public Safety Systems + BIO-key International...
InterAct Public Safety Systems (InterAct) has acquired all of the assets associated with BIO-key International’s Law Enforcement Division, which consists of the MobileCop?, PocketCop?, MobileRescue™, MobileOffice™, and InfoServer™ product lines.   Full Story

Tall Expectations As Ares I-X Rocket Readies to Roll
The Ares I-X stands tall, fully assembled, now complete measuring at a height of 327 feet, one of the largest rockets ever processed in the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 3, Super Stack 5 at the Kennedy Space Center.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Fiery Forests In California...
Satellite imagery from the recently launched UK-DMC2 satellite shows forest fires in the Los Padres National Forest east of Santa Maria at 11:10 local time on the 12th August.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... MODIS Marks Another California Fire
On August 12, 2009, the Lockheed Fire broke out in the mountains southwest of San Jose, California, and burned through an estimated 2,600 acres of brush and timber by the morning of August 14.   Full Story


August 13, 2009
Indonesian Government Steps In and Steps Up Pay TV Regulation (SatBroadcasting)
CASBAA has applauded the launch of an Indonesian government campaign to regularize the country’s cable-TV industry.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— FOR-A Brings Whole Slew Of New Stuff To IBC2009 — Gefen's Further Support For Digital Cinema — OmniBus Systems To Debut iTX @ IBC2009 — Ross Video Adds To CrossOver Family —   Full Story

Ukraine Is EO Aggressive
Ukraine will launch an Earth remote-sensing satellite in April 2010, the country's top space official said on Thursday.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— Google Jumps On2 On2 — Media Partners Asia + PayTV Subs — MPEGIF Mastery Class @ IBC2009 — An Interesting Development For Ross Video — Tieline Demos 3D Audio Over WiMAX — From Zero To 3D Signage —   Full Story

Financially Speaking... SIRIUS XM Radio...
The credit rating on Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI) has been raised by Standard & Poor's Investors Services to one notch away from highly speculative.   Full Story

General Urges Faster Deployment Of UAVs
The Defense Department and unmanned systems developers must do a better job fielding unmanned capabilities to servicemembers on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, a senior military officer said yesterday.   Full Story

Add In Another Acronym — OPV To Join UAV, UAS, + Others...
Aurora Flight Sciences announced today the launch of an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) based on the popular Diamond Aircraft DA42M.   Full Story

SYLDA Step Sequesters Satellites Soon
The first of two telecommunications satellite payloads for Arianespace's next heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission has been installed atop its launcher as preparations move into their final phase for the August 21 flight.   Full Story

Afghan Air Force Could Receive UAVs
The U.S. military is looking at eventually equipping Afghanistan's air corps with unmanned aircraft for surveillance missions, a general said on Wednesday.   Full Story

Breakthrough Learning — Get Those Federal Contracts!
The AFCEA is going to be offering a three-day course that will focus on the fundamentals of government contracting, a course tailored primarily to the needs of government and industry engineers, technical representatives, project managers, and procurement specialists, working in an austere budget and changing environment.   Full Story

Germany — Off To The Moon?
Germany is debating whether to launch an unmanned mission to the moon to help German companies secure expertise in the aerospace sector.   Full Story

Getting Them SATCOMS + Services For The Feds Now In The Hands Of GSA
The General Services Administration will manage the purchase of $5 billion worth of commercial satellite services during the next 10 years for all federal agencies, including the Defense Department, under an agreement announced on Thursday.   Full Story

O.K. Given By U.S. For ISRO To Launch Algerian Sats
The U.S. has allowed the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to launch Algerian satellites having American components using an Indian launch vehicle, following a Technical Safeguards Agreement (TSA) between the two countries.   Full Story

The Big Nuke Question For Chandrayaan II
India plans to power some parts of the Chandrayaan II, the nation's next unmanned mission to the moon, with nuclear energy and the feasibility studies are being carried out by Indian Space Research Organisation and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.   Full Story

Planck Picking Up Billion-Year-Old Light
The Planck space telescope has begun to collect light left over from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe.   Full Story


August 12, 2009
Losada From Hughes To Present @ SIA's SATCOM Workshop
Hughes Network Systems, LLC will participate in the Satellite Industry Association sponsored Army Commercial SATCOM Users Workshop, an adjunct event to LandWarNet 2009.   Full Story

Duo Of Hubs + Beam Surfing Deployed By ViaSat In Africa To Linkserve
ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) is supplying LinkStarS2 ACM and SurfBeam satellite networking system hubs to Linkserve, one of the largest ISPs in West Africa.   Full Story

Simply SATCOM Stupendous — SATCON In New York
Don't let your calendar avoid a most important entry — the SATCON Conference & Expo — October 14-15, 2009 — New York, New York.   Full Story

AsiaSat 5 and Loral's Amicable Separation Is a Breeze
AsiaSat 5 was launched August 12th on an ILS Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, described as a new generation communications' satellite of Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat). The next news report, nine hours and 15 minutes after liftoff announced that AsiaSat 5 successfully separated from the launch vehicle. AsiaSat in Hong Kong acquired the first signals from the satellite.   Full Story

Assets Combine To Create Overwatch
Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, has combined Overwatch Geospatial Systems and Overwatch Tactical Operations into a single Operating Unit called Overwatch.   Full Story

Korea's Launch Luster Fast Fading — Another Delay!
South Korea's first independently built space rocket suffered further launch delays with today's liftoff canceled due to poor weather, according to the nation's national news agency.   Full Story

Intelsat Reports Second Quarter 2009 Result$
Intelsat's a provider of fixed satellite services, second quarter 2009 revenue of $642 M indicates advances of 10 percent compared   Full Story

Amazing GRACE Discovers Disappearing Water in India
Using NASA satellite data, scientists have found that groundwater levels in northern India have been declining by as much as one foot per year over the past decade. Researchers concluded the loss is almost entirely due to human activity.   Full Story

$1 Billion to Mend a Broken Dish
Dish Network Corp. a provider of satellite TV services reports plans to levy a $1 billion debt offering with its subsidiary Dish DBS using the proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: A Bulging Moon
The oblate shape of Mimas is presented in this Cassini spacecraft image — the moon appears flattened at the poles with an equatorial bulge.   Full Story

Space Scan: Stellar Creations
A new study from two of NASA's Great Observatories provides fresh insight into how some stars are born, along with a beautiful new image of a stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy — the research shows that radiation from massive stars may trigger the formation of many more stars than previously thought.   Full Story


August 11, 2009
SIA + LandWarNet 2009 Offers General Strong As Keynote
The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) is pleased to announce that Major General Randolph P. Strong, Commanding General of the US Army Communications-Electronics Life Cycle Management Command, CECOM LCMC, Fort Monmouth, NJ, will keynote the 2nd Army Commercial SATCOM Users’ Workshop.   Full Story

Camcopter UAS Team-Up 'Tween Boeing + Schiebel
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] and Schiebel Industries AG of Austria today announced they have signed a teaming agreement to pursue marketing and support opportunities for Schiebel's S-100 CAMCOPTER.   Full Story

AsiaSat 5 Airborne + Into Orbit
AsiaSat 5, aboard an ILS Proton launch vehicle, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at Hong Kong Time 3:47:33 a.m. on the 12th of August.   Full Story

Optus D3's Orbit Move Is Next
Optus has confirmed its state-of-the-art D3 satellite is scheduled for launch from French Guiana on Saturday, 22 August 2009 AEST.   Full Story

Debut + Demos Of Draganflyer X4
The Draganflyer X4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is a computer-stabilized, miniature airborne platform with a wireless video downlink and remote flight control.</font   Full Story

Miteq Manufactures More Major Merchandise
MITEQ introduces a new addition to its family of advanced technology products.   Full Story

UK-DMC2 Satellite Delivers OK and Big Time Texas
It's a good report card for the UK-DMC2 satellite launched just over one week ago on July 29th in which the first full resolution commercial grade image has been acquired and processed. And what might the first image be?   Full Story

Spirent Signals Success
Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT) has launched the Spirent GSS6300 Multi-GNSS Signal Generator.   Full Story

GE Aviation + FAA Look To Integrate UAS/UAVs Into Air Traffic Management System
GE Aviation has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).   Full Story

Ariane 5 Has Everything Stacked In Its Favor
Every aspect of the preparation for Arianespace's next Ariane 5 mission is progressing smoothly including the build-up of the payload "stack" now underway at the Spaceport in French Guiana.   Full Story

Linking Up UAS For U.S. Army
AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, has received a $32 million award from the U.S. Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, for engineering and manufacturing activities to enhance the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) with the tactical common data link (TCDL).</font   Full Story

A Hummingbird With Plenty Of Lift
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] received a $500,000 contract from the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory on Aug. 5 to demo the company's A160T (YMQ-18A) Hummingbird for the Marines' Immediate Cargo Unmanned Aerial System Demonstration Program.   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ Sanswire Corp...
Sanswire Corp. (OTC.BB:SNSR), a company that develops and produces long endurance lighter-than-air Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) designed to provide persistent surveillance for extended durations at mid and high altitudes, has named Captain David A. Christian (USA-Ret.) its Chief Executive Officer. Captain Christian will remain Sanswire's Chairman of the Board.   Full Story

Yuma Proving Ground Proves MQ-8B For NGC
A Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) owned, land-based MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Unmanned Aircraft System (VUAS), designated P7, successfully demo'd its reconnaissance surveillance and target acquisition/intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (RSTA/ISR) capabilities this week at Yuma Proving Ground, Yuma, Arizona.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Gilat Satellite Networks
Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq:GILT) has reported its results for the second quarter ending June 30th, 2009.   Full Story

SatNetworks Drive Listening Pleasure In Romania (SatBroadcasting)
International Datacasting Corporation, (TSX:IDC) has announced the Company's wholly owned subsidiary and European base of operations PROFline B.V. has been awarded a contract to provide a next generation satellite distribution network to SBS Broadcasting Media for the leading Romanian radio networks MagicFM and OneFM.   Full Story

NASA's New Crew Drawn Magnetically Together
Always in forward motion, NASA has assigned the crew for space shuttle mission STS-134 to the International Space Station who will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, to the station.   Full Story

Computer Glitch = Computer Switch For NASA's Mars Orbiter
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been restored to full operations, making intensive science observations of Mars, four days after it unexpectedly switched to its backup computer.   Full Story

Globecomm Going Retro
Globecomm Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: GCOM) has received a government contract from a major global organization valued at $2.0 million.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
—Matrix Master Gefen's IBC2009 Plans — Harris Stratex Bringing WiMAX To BSNL — Snell Has Aussie Experience — weComm Brings Live TV News To Mobiles —   Full Story


August 10, 2009
New Links From TS2 For Int'l SatMarket
TS2 Satellite Technologies company is introducing new satellite link products to the international market.   Full Story

It Takes A CubeSat Constellation...
Clyde Space, among others, fully supports the QB50 initiative, which is an international network of 50 CubeSats for multi-point, in-situ measures in the lower thermosphere and re-entry.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth: Archaic Collision In Chad
Aorounga Impact Crater is located in the Sahara Desert, in north-central Chad, and is one of the best preserved impact structures in the world.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: Prestidigitation Of The Perfunctory Kind
A magnificent illusion is about to be performed by our solar system's sixth rock from the sun — Saturn — on August 1th.   Full Story

Testing Those STBs Part Of S3's Upcoming Demo (SatBroadcasting)
S3 will be demo'ing its StormTest product to more than 200 senior executives in the North American cable industry at the upcoming CableLabs? Summer Conference in Colorado from August 9th-11th.   Full Story

Spatial Legalities Opened For Consortium Confab
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC?) will hold a Spatial Law and Policy Summit at The Westin Washington, D.C. City Center on October 7, 2009.   Full Story

Making Moon Plans, GMV Provides Tools For NASA Goddard’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Not your usual To Do list, GMV provided its Mission Planning & Scheduling tool, FlexPlan, for the Mission Planning & Scheduling system for Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is designed to conduct investigations that will prepare for and support future human exploration of the Moon.   Full Story

Telespazio Gains Polish Agreement
The Ministry of Defense of Poland and Telespazio, a Finmeccanica/Thales company, have signed a 10-year contract worth approximately 30 million euros to provide Italian Sicral 1B space capacity in UHF frequency band.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— GLO Mobile Offers Int'l MSS — Maxis Going For Billions — Media Partners Asia Reports Healthy Asian payTV Market — Megafon Iranian GSM Deal — Omantel Packages — Orange RIM With Smartphone For Jordan —   Full Story

Moving On Up @ Boeing's Asset
Boeing [NYSE: BA] has named Andrew Ward as its new chief investment officer, a position from which he will oversee approximately $65 billion in retirement assets for approximately 550,000 beneficiaries.   Full Story

SatFarming With RapidEye
RapidEye, the geospatial solutions provider who owns and operates their own constellation of Earth observation satellites, have successfully completed two pilot projects for VISIOPLAINE, a brand of S2B (Soci?t? des Services aux Betteraviers) in France to support nitrogen fertilization of canola and wheat fields.   Full Story

NASA's Mars Rover Knows An Opportunity When It Sees a Watermelon
Last week we reported about NASA's Mars Rover, Opportunity, having found a large rock on Mars. We likened it to rocky road ice cream, but now the investigation refers to a metallic meteorite the size of a large watermelon that is providing researchers more details about the Red Planet's environmental history.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... GeoEye, Inc...
GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) has announced results for its fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2009.   Full Story

Drilling For Spatial Details — Starting Speakers Slate Stupendous!
An impressive slate of featured speakers has been confirmed for the Strategic Space Symposium,? November 2nd thorugh 4th, 2009, at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska...   Full Story

Cubic's CDLs To Catch Conference Attendee Eyes (UAV/UAS)
Cubic Defense Applications will showcase a range of common data link (CDL) systems for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference this week in Washington, D.C.   Full Story

SKY Brasil Is Totally Harmonic (SatBroadcasting)
Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) has announced that SKY Brasil Servi?os Ltda., Brazil's largest direct-to-home (DTH) satellite video service provider with nearly 2 million subscribers, has rolled out its new HDTV service based on Harmonic's market-leading MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) digital video delivery solutions.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Iridium Satellite...
Iridium Satellite LLC (“Iridium”) has reported consolidated financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2009.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Loral Space & Communications...
Loral Space & Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:LORL) has announced its financial results for the three months and six months ended June 30, 2009.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution™
— Adtec Digital An Asset For UBITC — Entropic + Intel To Demo UPnP — Brit ITV Still Hunting For CEO — O2 + Telmap Partnership —   Full Story

A Gathering Of UAVs/UAS
Bruce V. Bigelow in Xconomy reports on the upcoming AUVSI conference in Washington, D.C., which is the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. Live demos of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicles) occurred at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in St. Inigoes, MD. The rest of the conference returns tomorrow to the Washington Convention Center.   Full Story

Meshing Dynamic Bandwidth Is ND SatCom + SkyWAN
ND SatCom’s next generation SkyWAN? satellite modems continue their performance evolution: ND SatCom introduces the new 1HU (Height Unit), cost-efficient, IP-only terminal, which includes the full set of SkyWAN? features, e.g., Turbo-?-Coding, IP Routing, true full? mesh capability and dynamic bandwidth allocation.   Full Story

GPS Sats Are Going To Be Going, Going, Gone — IIR-M Final Flight
The U.S. Air Force is scheduled to launch the last in the series of eight modernized Global Positioning System (GPS) IIR-M satellite aboard the last Air Force procured United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket August 17 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.?   Full Story

Financially Speaking... EchoStar Corporation...
EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) has reported total revenue of $383 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2009, a 20.7 percent decrease compared with $483 million for the corresponding period in 2008.   Full Story

SatDelivery Of News For Schools
Keystone Enterprise Services and Channel One Network have an agreement which finds Channel One having contracted with Keystone Enterprise Services to supply turnkey satellite network and support services for its school news broadcast, Channel One News, which reaches more than six million middle and high school students on a daily basis.   Full Story

Aero-SB Lite Makes the PMA Grade + Makes Appearance @ AUVSI 2009
Thrane & Thrane has recently received Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) for its latest SwiftBroadband solution, Aero-SB Lite.   Full Story

Better – Faster – Cheaper @ IDGA’s 4th Air Launched Weapons Conference
From August 24-25, in Vienna, Virginia at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner Hotel, IDGA’s 4th Air Launched Weapons conference will delve into the challenges faced by all branches of the services when it comes to making weapons cheaper and more efficient.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: 61st Titan Flyby
Cassini completed its 61st targeted flyby of Titan on August 9, passing the moon at a distance of 970 kilometers (603 miles) above the surface at a speed of 6.0 kilometers per second (about 13,400 mph).   Full Story

Triple Play In Brazil For GVT + Team (SatBroadcasting)
Brazilian telephony and broadband internet provider Global Village Telecom (GVT) is teaming up with satellite firm Sky TV to offer a triple-play service, reports BNamericas citing a joint statement from the two companies.   Full Story


August 7, 2009
Rovi Helps Create More Interesting Content (SatBroadcasting)
Rovi Corporation (Nasdaq:ROVI) and TiVo have signed a multi-year global agreement that will allow TiVo to incorporate Rovi's television, movies, and music data into TiVo digital video recorders (DVRs) and through TiVo's technology and service solutions tailored for satellite, cable, and broadcasting companies.   Full Story

Doing D3 + JCSAT-12 Prep Work Is Arianespace
The final phase of payload preparations has been initiated for Arianespace’s next heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission, which is set for later this month with the Optus D3 and JCSAT-12 as satellite passengers.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: Rampant Ring Revelations
Thanks to a special play of sunlight and shadow as Saturn continues its march towards its August 11 equinox, recent images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft are revealing new three-dimensional objects and structures in the planet’s otherwise flat rings.   Full Story

ESA's CryoSat-2 Now Has Exceptional Grounding
As ESA prepares for the launch of CryoSat-2 at the end of the year, its associated ground segment is now ready.   Full Story

Lockheed Martin Demos SmartPhone Ops For Warfighters @ CWID
Warfighters operating in theatre may soon have greater situational awareness with the added ability to download high-value tactical data anywhere in the field on smartphones loaded with new applications from Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT].   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution — Financially Speaking... TeliaSonera, Cukurova, + Turkcell Holding — A Sharing Environment
An arbitration tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce has issued an award stating that Cukurova must deliver all the remaining shares in Turkcell Holding to TeliaSonera for a cash consideration of USD 3.1 billion.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution — Financially Speaking... Bharti Airtel...
The Company has added to their media statement dated May 25, 2009, on the renewal of discussions regarding a potential transaction between Bharti Airtel Limited and MTN.   Full Story

Fill 'er Up — Ariane 5 All Gassed Up and Ready For Heavy Lifting!
Step by step the process is completed. Today both payloads for Arianespace's next Ariane 5 flight have been fueled at the Spaceport as preparations continue for the workhorse vehicle's fourth heavy-lift launch of 2009 from French Guiana.   Full Story


August 6, 2009
Teamed Up For Geo-Imaging Training
ImStrat Corporation and PCI Geomatics have signed a Teaming Agreement, whereby both parties will participate in jointly developing and providing combined remote sensing and PCI software training programs to PCI and ImStrat clients, both in Canada and around the world.   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has added Marv Vander Weg in the role of Vice President of the EELV Customer Office, where he will be responsible for acquiring and managing EELV missions for SpaceX's U.S. Government customers.   Full Story

DoD Space Security Programs' Budget Subject Of In-Depth Analysis
A budget analysis has been completed which examines a range of Department of Defense (DoD) space security programs outlined in its Fiscal Year 2010 budget request.   Full Story

Subsidiary Set-Up: EADS In Japan
EADS has established a new subsidiary in Japan to help coordinate and support the Group's marketing campaigns and industrial partnerships there.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)evolution — ATB's Digital STB Is The First
Advanced Digital Broadcast will deliver its ADB-1100T digital terrestrial STB to Spanish Ikusi — the deal marks a milestone for both companies, as it will be the very first product launched in the Spanish market for DTT pay services and will set the standard to follow.   Full Story

RRsat Goes Dutch, Again
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: RRST) has announced BVN-TV has decided to expand its contract with RRsat.   Full Story

digiGO! — Digital (R)evolutions
— Clearwire Communication's CLEAR 4G — HSL's New Picocell — Iraq To Crack Down On Internet — MotionDPS Ikena — Ofcom Porting — OmniBus Systems' iTX — TeleNav T-Mobile — Telstra SNAP — UNITY Mobile TynTec — Verizon Price Cuts —   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)evolution — HSPA+ Net For Japan
The Japanese mobile operator, eMobile, combined with Huawei Technologies of China have now launched the first HSPA net in Japan.   Full Story

KVH Mini-VSAT Broadband Brings Serious ShipComm To Asia-Pacific
KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI) has successfully activated its mini-VSAT Broadband service in Asia-Pacific waters, in collaboration with SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (also known as SP-JSAT) via the JCSAT-1B satellite.   Full Story

8x8 VoIP Trunking Services Go To CallFire
8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGHT), a provider of Internet Protocol (IP) communications solutions for business and residential users, is providing voice trunking services to cloud telephony solution provider CallFire.   Full Story

A Field Of Unmanned Dreams — Robonic
Robonic’s Arctic Test UAV Flight Centre (RATUFC) is emerging as a major focal point for unmanned air system flight test and evaluation in Europe, with the facility recently hosting its fourth different air vehicle flight campaign in the past 36 months.   Full Story

Fury UAV With Thunderstorm Aboard Demos Electronic Attack System
A Chesapeake Technology International Corporation (CTI) / AeroMech Engineering, Incorporated (AME) team has successfully demo'd an unmanned airborne medium power communications Electronic Attack (EA) capability during two successful flights conducted at an airfield in California during the week of July 27th, 2009.   Full Story

Northrop Grumman Bets On A Bat's Better Comms Relay Payload
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has successfully demo'd a communications relay payload for a government customer during multiple flights of its Bat unmanned aircraft system (UAS).   Full Story

Yahsat Project Finds EM Solutions Playing RF Ro
EM Solutions has been awarded an initial contract by Astrium UK Limited for supply of Ka-band RF equipment, which is to be incorporated into a Yahsat Ground and Naval System program, which will form part of a new communications system in United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the Yahsat Project.   Full Story

25K + Counting For Global Hawk UAS
Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system (UAS) recently reached a major milestone —25,000 combat hours — during an operational sortie July 8-9 from a deployed location.   Full Story

Stolt Signs On Stratos
Stratos Global Corporation has been selected by Stolt Tankers B.V. (Stolt) to provide a fleetwide, high-speed satellite-based communications network.   Full Story

It's All About Atmosphere For NASA's Kepler
NASA's new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope's extraordinary scientific capabilities — the discovery will be published Friday in the journal Science.   Full Story

IMS's STB Study (SatBroadcasting)
Shipments of digital terrestrial (DTT) and satellite (DTH) set-top boxes to China, India, and the United States accounted for more than 60 percent of total worldwide set-top box (STB) shipments in 2008, and are expected to reach 70 percent of worldwide shipments in 2009.   Full Story

A Reflection Of Solid Spatial Data
A deployable satellite reflector and boom assembly from Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and their Astro Aerospace strategic business unit will help NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) map soil moisture and the freezing and thawing cycles globally with unprecedented accuracy, resolution and coverage.   Full Story

A Microwave Moment For AML Communications + UAVs
AML Communications, Inc. (OTCBB: AMLJ - News) has received a $2.2 million order for integrated microwave assemblies to be deployed in UAVs.   Full Story

digiGO! — The Digital (R)Evolution
Scalable Network Technologies, Inc. (SNT) has introduced VisNet™, a new network design tool that enables planning and deployment teams to quickly visualize, design, and optimize the performance of mobile ad-hoc networks.   Full Story

Moving On Out... @ Integral Systems...
The Board of Directors of Integral Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq: ISYS) has announced it has accepted the resignation of John B. Higginbotham as Chief Executive Officer, President, and as a member of the Board of Directors.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Inmarsat plc...
Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT) has reported consolidated financial results for the 6 months ended 30 June 2009. Inmarsat plc - 2009 Interim Highlights include:   Full Story

Financially Speaking.. SIRIUS XM Radio...
SIRIUS XM Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) has announced second quarter 2009 financial and operating results, including $132 million in adjusted income from operations, marking the company's third consecutive quarter of positive adjusted income.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Alliant Techsystems...
Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) has reported that fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 (FY10), which ended on July 5, 2009, rose 35 percent to $2.09, compared to $1.55(1) in the prior-year quarter.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Atlantic Hurricane Season Has A Calm Side
According to its August Atlantic hurricane season outlook, NOAA now expects a near- to below-normal Atlantic hurricane season, as the calming effects of El Nino continue to develop.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Hardly Handy Hurricanes + Temperamental Typhoons
Although Tropical Storm Goni is "gone" as a tropical cyclone, its remnants are still bringing rains to southeast China. — Felicia is the storm that rules the Eastern Pacific Ocean this week, but Enrique refuses to give up. — Satellite imagery over the last two days has shown Typhoon Morakot to be a monster, and over the last two days, NASA satellites have confirmed the typhoon doubled its size.   Full Story

Peering Through Dust Spitzer Peeks At the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy
The center of our Milky Way Galaxy may be hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas, but, in this stunning vista, the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared cameras penetrate much of the dust, revealing the stars of the crowded galactic center region.   Full Story

Going Rural — Gilat Takes It to the Columbian (Sky)Edge
Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.[Nasdaq: GILT] today announced that its Spacenet Rural Communications (SRC) business unit has successfully deployed a Gilat SkyEdge II broadband satellite communications network at more than 1,300 sites for the Colombian Ministry of Communications.   Full Story


August 5, 2009
Financially Speaking... Numerex...
Numerex Corp. (Nasdaq: NMRX) has announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2009. Key financial metrics for the second quarter of 2009 include:   Full Story

digiGO! — Digital (R)evolution
— ABI Research Mobile Data Analysis — Apple iPhone — Argentina's Mobile Subscribers — 3G Subscriber Predictions — Mobile TV Market In Indonesia —   Full Story

Going ISR 3D For UAVs Is Scientific Systems With USAF SBIR Grant
Scientific Systems Company, Inc. (SSCI) has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force to develop high-quality, three-dimensional (3-D) imaging technologies for use in automated surveillance systems.   Full Story

Investment Infusion Of Healthy Proportions For UAV Manufacturer Aeronautics
Viola Private Equity will invest $20 million in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturer Aeronautics Defense Systems Ltd.   Full Story

Italy's Predator-A Proves Remote Control Is In Hand
The first satellite-guided flight of a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Predator-A of the Italian Air Force between two of its bases (Amendola, Foggia and Decimomannu, Cagliari) has been successfully completed.   Full Story

Tracking Antenna Is Both Portable + Ku-band Effective For UAV MILCOM
TECOM Industries, Inc., a Smiths Interconnect business, has announced the commercial launch of the GDT-2100 Ku-band Ground Data Terminal Antenna (GDT) System.   Full Story

Arianespace' Le Gall Pushes To Support U.S. Space Exploration
The message from Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall in a presentation on August 5 to the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, which was created to evaluate America's future human spaceflight operations after NASA's planned retirement of the Space Shuttle, was simple: Ariane 5 is available to support the future of U.S. space exploration, including cargo resupply flights for the International Space Station, along with missions to the Moon and Mars.   Full Story

On-Orbit Testing To Get Going For GOES-14
On July 17th, Boeing [NYSE: BA] transferred Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-O to NASA, completing the company's third on-orbit satellite handover this year.   Full Story

NASA'S Spitzer's Cool Attitude With Warm (Infrared) Eyes
Still rarin' to work, NASA&'s Spitzer Space Telescope is starting a second career and taking its first shots of the cosmos since warming up. The infrared telescope ran out of coolant May 15, 2009, more than five-and-one-half-years after launch resulting in 'warming' to a still-frosty 30 degrees Kelvin (about minus 406 degrees Fahrenheit).   Full Story

Goals Streamed By SatStream (SatBroadcasting)
SatStream has announced the successful streaming of three Manchester City matches, which were part of the Vodacom challenge, a pre-season football event now in its tenth year, hosted in South Africa.   Full Story

NDS Is Sky High Regarding Tata Sky, And For Good DTH Reasons (SatBroadcasting)
NDS has recognized Tata Sky, a provider of DTH satellite pay-TV services in India, as having achieved a remarkable milestone in reaching four million connections in less than three years since the program launch.   Full Story

TS2 Set To Link The World
TS2 Satellite Technologies company is introducing new satellite link products to the international market.   Full Story

WorldView-2 Testing Moves Onwards + Upwards @ Ball
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has successfully completed environmental testing for the WorldView-2 remote sensing satellite built for DigitalGlobe and has begun post-environmental performance testing.   Full Story

NASA's Discovery's Sobering White Lightning Experience
Drama at its best as the rollout of space shuttle Discovery was slow-going due to the onset of lightning in the area of Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.   Full Story


August 4, 2009
Moving On Up... At Intelsat...
Skot Butler, an executive with broad experience marketing satellite services to a range of government and commercial users, has been named Director of Strategic Initiatives of Intelsat General Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intelsat Ltd.   Full Story

Moving On Up... At Lockheed Martin...
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has announced that Vice President and Controller Martin T. Stanislav has been named Vice President, Finance & Business Operations, for the Corporation’s Information Systems & Global Services (IS&GS) Business Area effective immediately.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Fiery Attacks On Alaska
Large wildfires that began in July continued to burn in interior Alaska in the first week of August 2009.   Full Story

digiGO! — Digital (R)evolution
— Broadpoint T-Mobile — HARRIS — Miniweb Interactive Metrological Intel — Netflix — NITEL — RCOM — Thomson —   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ YahLive (SES ASTRA + Al Yah Satellite Communications partnership)
SES ASTRA, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), and the Arab satellite operator Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat), have appointed Mohamed Youssif as the CEO of YahLive.   Full Story

Not Intimidated TSF Returns With Results to Pakistan
The timeline that reveals the persistent efforts of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) to assist is as follows: May 18th, TSF deployed to Pakistan to respond to the emergency in the North Western Frontier Province.   Full Story

AsiaSat 5 To Head For 100.5 Degrees East Aboard ILS Proton Breeze M On August 12th
An ILS Proton will be launching AsiaSat-5, according to a new contract signed between International Launch Services and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company.   Full Story

Crucial Data Delivery For UAVs To Be On Display From Elisra
Elisra is showcasing the Company's avionics data link technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) next week at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems North America 2009 conference and exhibition in Washington.   Full Story

Dozor-3 Development For Russian Military
Russia's Kronshtadt defense company has developed a new-generation heavy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for military purposes, a senior company official said on Tuesday.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: Hughes Present @ GSA Conference On SATCOM-II Panel
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) has announced that Tony Bardo, assistant vice president for government solutions at Hughes, will participate as a speaker at the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) Network Services Conference.   Full Story

Only Have Analog Transmitters For Your UAV? Enerdyne Can Move All To Digital
The Enerdyne division of ViaSat Inc. (Nasdaq:VSAT) has added a new operating mode for its EnerLinksIII Ground Modem Transceiver (GMT) that enables it to interoperate with airborne vehicles that use analog FM technology to transmit NTSC, PAL, or RS170 sensor video over a line-of-sight, air-to-ground communications link.   Full Story

Timing Is Everything For Engage Communication
Engage Communication has delivered PrimaStratum, a Global Positioning System Disciplined Oscillator that supplies a Stratum 1 synchronous clock reference solution, to an international Mobile Service provider.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: Studying STBs Studiously Is In-Stat
Each of the major set top box (STB) segments, including Cable, Satellite, DTT and IP, faces widely different outlooks, according to In-Stat.   Full Story

Astrium Terminals Talking Turkey
Astrium Services’ Secure Satcom Systems division has delivered the first set of SATCOM equipments to Aselsan for the first of class MILGEM, the prestigious Turkish National corvette program.   Full Story

No Ice Cream In This Rover's Rocky Road
Surprise! the Mars Exploration Rover, appropriately named Opportunity, while on its appointed journey came accross an oddly shaped, dark rock, which may be a meteorite and is about 2 feet across, found on the surface of the Red Planet on July 18, 2009.   Full Story

Rockwell Collins' DAGR Does GPS Right For USAF
Rockwell Collins has received a $20.2 million contract modification to provide 81,622 DAGR hand-held GPS receivers and accessories to the U.S. Air Force GPS Wing (GPSW/PK) in El Segundo, CA.   Full Story

New NASA Astronaut Job Description — Must Twitter
Well, not a job requirement, but always keeping current with technology a NASA astronaut and U.S. Army Col. Tim Kopra has become the first International Space Station crew member to use the social media tool Twitter to discuss living and working in orbit.   Full Story

Support By SED For Comms Of The Deep Space Kind
The Systems Engineering Division (SED) of Calian has been given an authorization to provision a 35-metre deep space antenna and RF system in South America — it is expected that the resolution of final details and contract signing for an estimated total value of $39 million will be achieved before the end of the 2009 fiscal year.   Full Story


August 3, 2009
SatBroadcasting: Heading Into MENA Is CCTV's Arabic Channel Via GlobeCast
GlobeCast now has an agreement to distribute Chinese broadcaster CCTV’s newly-launched Arabic channel to the Middle East and North Africa via Arabsat’s BADR-6 satellite.   Full Story

Product Debut: Prysm Pro By Spacenet
Spacenet Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT) has introduced its new Prysm Pro application and network management appliance.   Full Story

MITEQ Catalogs Capture Current Creations
MITEQ has published two, new, informative catalogs that describe various product lines.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: This Bark Carries BBC Coverage Of Tall Ships With Stratos Global Accoutrements
Stratos Global Corporation has deployed an Inmarsat FleetBroadband mobile satellite system onboard the tall ship Bark Europa to broadcast coverage of the final leg of the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge between Halifax and Belfast — the system is being used by BBC Northern Ireland.   Full Story

SMART International Agencies Join In Mutual Aid SatNet From SkyTerra
SkyTerra is bringing public works agencies and private utility companies in North America together via a new SMART group.   Full Story

Contractually Cognizant: GSA
Over the past decade, Federal Government customers have procured Commercial Satellite Communications (COMSATCOM) services through a combination of Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and General Services Administration (GSA) contract vehicles.</font   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: Hughes + Bentley Walker Mesh Together
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) and the Company's European business unit, Hughes Europe, has signed an agreement to supply Bentley Walker with its new HX mesh satellite network technology for delivering broadband services in the Middle East and Afghanistan.   Full Story

ARINC RAIMing On Flight Plans
ARINC Direct has enhanced its flight planning services for business aircraft with the addition of worldwide Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring, or RAIM predictions.   Full Story

Two-Timing Streamlined Workhorse for Ariane 5
Dual payloads of telecommunications' satellites are undergoing preparations as the fifth Ariane 5 this year readies for launch having completed its initial build-up for another of Arianespace's trademark dual-satellite payload missions. (In the photo at right, the ESC-A upper stage/vehicle equipment bay unit is moved toward Ariane 5 for its installation atop the launcher’s core stage).   Full Story

Malaysian UAV Climbs New Heights
The ALUDRA (Allianced Unmanned Developmental Research Aircraft) UAV, deployed by the Malaysian Joint Forces in Ops Pasir at Pandanan and Sipadan Resorts, will be launched early next year.   Full Story

Civilian Focus For Dominator II UAV
The Dominator II (“Oz”), developed by Israel-based Aeronautics, is the world’s first UAV based on a certified civilian aircraft.   Full Story

God Speed — As ULA Launches AF Delta II Bringing the End of An Era
The launch of the ULA Delta II GPS IIR-21 satellite is set for August 17, 6:35 a.m. EDT, from Space Launch Complex-17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.   Full Story

Ion Implications By Aeroject + NEC
Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, and NEC Corporation (TSE:6701) will both explore the feasibility of jointly supplying low power ion propulsion systems for the U.S. and Japanese aerospace markets.   Full Story

Arresting Demonstration for Brazilian Police of IAI's Heron UAV
Described as a successful demonstration of Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) System took place last week in Brazil at the request of the Brazilian federal police who are testing UAV use for several purposes.   Full Story

Chandrayaan-1 Aims Spectrometer At Home Base
This image of Earth taken from 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the lunar surface was taken by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, one of two NASA instruments onboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.   Full Story


August 2, 2009
Indian Armed Forces Getting What They've Asked For — UAVs
The Indian Defence ministry has approved another major induction of UAVs for armed forces, with surveillance and intelligence-gathering missions becoming critical on the western and eastern fronts as well as along the huge coastline.   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ Astrotech...
Astrotech Corporation (NASDAQ:ASTC) has announced that the Company's Board of Directors has appointed <i>John Porter</i> as their’s Chief Financial Officer on a permanent basis, effective July 21, 2009.   Full Story

More Jewels In The NavCom Family — Sapphire GNSS Goodies
NavCom Technology, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), announced the release of the SF-3050 multi-frequency GNSS receiver with its new Sapphire GNSS OEM board.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... SES...
During the second quarter, SES continued to build on the achievements recorded in the first three months of the year.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Magma Missing — Caldera Conditions
This detailed astronaut photograph features two stratovolcanoes — Pico de Teide and Pico Viejo — located on Tenerife Island, part of the Canary Islands of Spain.   Full Story

Here's Looking @ Earth... Mono Measurements From Smoky Skies
Intense fires burning in the boreal forests of northern Russia, Alaska, and Canada darkened Northern skies with smoke in July 2009.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Integral Systems, Inc...
Integral Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq: ISYS) has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") concerning the SEC's previously disclosed investigation, as more fully described in the Company's 2008 Form 10-K and other periodic filings.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Eutelsat Communications...
Eutelsat Communications (ISIN: FR0010221234 - Euronext Paris: ETL) has reported results for the full year ended June 30, 2009.   Full Story

Financially Speaking... Honeywell...
The Board of Directors of Honeywell (NYSE: HON) has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.3025 per share on the company's outstanding common stock.   Full Story

Cassini Captures: Consider The Crescent
The Cassini spacecraft looks down on the north pole of Titan, showing night and day in the northern hemisphere of Saturn's largest moon.   Full Story

Own, Payload Prep, + Launch Your Own Personal Sat For $8K
Interorbital has released the TubeSat Personal Satellite (PS) Kit, a low-cost alternative to the CubeSat with three-quarters of the mass (0.75-kg) and volume of a CubeSat, but with plenty of room for most experiments or functions.   Full Story

U.S. Air Force to Host Unmanned Aircraft Systems Symposium at U of N. Dakota
Air Force officials will host the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Symposium August 4 to 6 at the University of North Dakota, in which participants will address representatives of academic institutions and industry as well as local military leaders regarding the Air Force UAS vision.   Full Story

MILSTAR Reception Via EHF Small Antenna Passes USAF Flight Test
Electronic Systems Center and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory personnel demo'd the powerful capabilities of a small antenna during a flight test conducted earlier this summer here.   Full Story

Moving On Up @ Raytheon
The Raytheon Company [NYSE: RTN] Board of Directors has elected Stephen J. Hadley as a director of the Company effective immediately. Hadley, 62, is currently a senior advisor for International Affairs at the U.S. Institute of Peace.   Full Story

South Korea Ramps Up For Third Try @ First Rocket Launch
South Korea will launch its first space rocket from its territory on August 11, following repeated delays due to technical problems, officials reported on Saturday.   Full Story

Cheers! UK Ministry of Defence Reveals Latest UAS
A gathering on July 30, at an exhibiton at the UK Ministry of Defence's London headquarters revealed the latest Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) providing an opportunity of both military and civilian to gather their own intelligence on the future of military aviation.   Full Story

Copacetic Contract Conclusions: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin Corp., Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., was awarded a $20,000,000 modified contract for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite and will study the technology necessary to potentially support future enhancements to the AEHF system. At this time, no funding has been obligated.   Full Story

ISRO To Receive Nano From Students For Eco Work
In India, IT Kanpur has developed a nano-satellite which is expected to provide real-time data on drought, flood, vegetation and forestation.   Full Story

Satellite Broadcasting: ShooFeeTV's FTA Heads In Via ArabSat
ShooFeeTV, the premier provider of TV-related entertainment in the Arab World, has launched its free-to-air satellite channel via ArabSat, bringing viewers programming schedules of more than 120 free-to-air (FTA) and paid satellite channels; programming and celebrity information; video clips; photographs; entertainment news and more.   Full Story

Russia's Putin (Action Man) Has Satisfying Sat Signification With White Whale
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently attached a satellite transmitter onto a white whale in Russia's Far East region and then told the animal not to be so angry.   Full Story


August 1, 2009
Chapter 11 Filing By ProtoStar
ProtoStar Limited has filed for bankruptcy protection, which will also include the Company's five affiliates.   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ GeoEye...
GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY) has appointed Randall J. Scherago as Vice President of Investor Relations.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: MEASAT Makes Li TV HD Happy
MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. (“MEASAT”) has agreed to a multi-year agreement with LI TV INTERNATIONAL LIMITED (“Li TV”) for the distribution of Asia’s first HD lifestyle channel.   Full Story

MSS Must Be Ready For Change, Says NSR
NSR has released its newest market survey and forecast report: Mobile Satellite Services, 5th Edition.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: The DEV Is In The Details With New Distribution Appliance
DEV Systemtechnik has thoroughly re-designed its L-band Signal Distribution System DEV 2180, equipping the next appliance generation with a controller and SNMP/Ethernet interface as well as hot-pluggable amplifiers as a standard which can be upgraded without interruption of operations.   Full Story

X-47B UCAS Does Northrop Grumman Proud — Receives Navy Bureau Number
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) recently completed a series of static and dynamic proof load tests to validate the design and structural integrity of the U.S. Navy's first X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) for aircraft carrier launches, recoveries and at-sea operations under the UCAS Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program.   Full Story

No Image Problem For Sensors Unlimited + Cloud Cap Technology
Sensors Unlimited, Inc., part of Goodrich Corporation, and Cloud Cap Technology, acquired by Goodrich Corporation in May, 2009, are teaming together to provide specialized imaging solutions for military, security and surveillance markets.   Full Story

IDF Can Now Take Offensive and Defensive Looks At... Everything!
The Israeli army has unveiled its latest tactical weapon — a miniature spy-in-the-sky that can be launched by an infantry unit in the battlefield to see over hills up to 10 miles away — in an article published by All Headline News.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: Continental Does The Same satTV Thing...
As has been the case for most U.S. discount airlines, Continental Airlines has decided to bring satTV to its passengers.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: 3D Is High For Sky, Plus Financially Speaking...
Sky has announced that the number of customers choosing Sky HD, the U.K.’s only HD service currently capable of broadcasting 3D services, has increased to 1.313 million following record growth.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: Dealing From The Hai Deck is AVS In Argentina
HaiVision Network Video has announced that Buenos Aires-based Audio Video Sistemas (AVS) is serving as the company's dealer for customers in Latin American markets.   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ Comtech AeroAstro
Comtech AeroAstro (CAA) has announced that Stanley O. Kennedy, Jr. has been named as the Vice President and General Manager of the Space Products Group.   Full Story

Push To Process Precipitation Perplexities
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) President Keiji Tachikawa have signed an agreement defining the terms of cooperation between the agencies on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission — the ceremony occurred Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: InSat Certainly Satisfied With SES ASTRA
SES ASTRA, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), has signed a new capacity agreement for its 31.5 degrees East orbital position.   Full Story

SatBroadcasting: Financially Speaking... Cross MediaWorks
BIA Digital Partners II LP (”BIA”), a private investment firm focusing on mid- to later-stage companies, has announced an investment of $17 million in Cross MediaWorks.   Full Story

Future SATCOM Procurements Will Find GSA + DISA In Cahoots
The U.S. General Services Administration and Defense Information Systems Agency are going to join forces to procure future commercial satellite communications.   Full Story

digiGO! — Digital (R)evolutions
— Alcatel Lucent — BT — Entropic Sigma — HaiVision Network Video — MTN Rwanda — Piltel — Sprint Nextel —   Full Story

Moving On Up... @ TIA
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has hired Cheryl Blum as Vice President for Standards and Business Development.   Full Story

Particularly Adept @ Interdiction Is The Predator...
Chris Batcheller, at Aero-News.Net, authored an interesting article entitled "U.S. Customs Predator UAV Operates in National Airspace."   Full Story

New Intelligence Options For German MoD With EuroHawk UAS
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has finished assembling the first Euro Hawk(r) UAS for the German Ministry of Defence (MoD).   Full Story

First Graduates Make The Vizada Grade
Vizada has graduated its first class of service provider trainees from its technical training program, the Vizada Solutions™ Certification Program (VSCP).   Full Story

SMC's SBIRS Software Success
The U.S. Air Force’s Space Based Infrared Systems Wing has successfully completed development of its Flight Software Subsystem, July 29, at the Lockheed Martin site in Sunnyvale, Calif.   Full Story

Contractually Cognizant: SAIC
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (NYSE: SAI) has been awarded a prime contract by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic) to provide command and control integration support to the Department of Defense (DoD) and federal agencies.   Full Story

Warfighter Secure Comm Demo'd By Ratheon + SafeNet
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) and SafeNet Inc. recently partnered to demo a new technology that secures radio communication among warfighters.   Full Story

Concentrated UAV Roles In Afghanistan
The U.S. military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.   Full Story

IBC2009's Award Shortlist Surprises
After careful deliberation, the judges have decided on their shortlist for the 2009 IBC Innovation Awards.</font   Full Story

SatVoIP Becomes A Reality For TerreStar With EB's Ref Designs Doing Their Best
EB, Elektrobit Corporation (OMX: EBC1V), earlier this week, that two of its all-IP enabled, integrated satellite-terrestrial smartphone reference designs were used by TerreStar Networks, to successfully complete an end-to-end voice over IP (VoIP) phone call over TerreStar-1, the world's largest, most advanced commercial communications satellite.   Full Story

Welcome Home — The Eagle (Endeavour) Has Landed!
Home again, yet never taken for granted, the space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 16-day journey of more than 6.5 million miles with a 10:48 a.m. EDT landing Friday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.   Full Story


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